This invention relates to simulators and more particularly to simulating operating room mal-events.
During surgery, anesthesiologists are required to monitor multiple real time patient vital signs information and trends. In the event of a mal-event, the anesthesiologist must react quickly and accurately. For example, mal-events that may occur during surgery are malignant hyperthermia, embolism and acute surgical bleeding. Malignant hyperthermia is a disorder of muscle metabolism leading to hypermetabolism and eventually high fever. Embolism is a blockage of a major blood vessel by a blood clot, fat, or other substance, leading to problems with blood oxygenation and eventually cardiovascular collapse. Acute surgical bleeding, in which uncontrolled blood loss occurs, can lead to very low blood pressure and possibly cardiac arrest. If appropriate corrective measures are not taken on a timely basis, each of these conditions can result in the patient's death. In order no detect the onset of these conditions, the anesthesiologist normally monitors the patient's blood oxygen saturation, pulse rate, blood pressure, temperature and end-tidal CO.sub.2. Any substantial deviation of some or all of these parameters from an initial base line value will indicate to the anesthesiologist the occurrence of an emergency situation and the nature of the event.
In training anesthesiologists and in upgrading their skills, the simulation of emergency situations is a valuable tool. However, the simulation of a complex biological system is extremely difficult. As a result, prior art simulators use models that are extremely complex. For example, an EKG simulator uses 5,000 to 100,000 comparisons to generate just one cardiac cycle with a program length of about 10,000 lines. Even so, such prior art simulators are not as realistic as originally hoped.